Paying for future care
What Long-Term Care Costs: The 2025 Numbers
The 2025 national median costs of long-term care from CareScout: assisted living, nursing home rooms, help at home, and adult day programs, plus what moves the price and who pays.
Long-term care is help with daily life that lasts for months or years: help at home, a day program, an assisted living home, or a nursing home. This guide gives the 2025 national median costs from CareScout, shows what moves a price up or down, and lays out who pays for what.
This guide is part of our Aging at Home hub. Its sister guides cover estimating the cost of help at home, comparing home care with residential care expenses, and budgeting for expenses Medicare may not cover. A related guide is a simple monthly budget on a fixed income.
Key takeaways
- Assisted living costs a national median of $6,200 a month (CareScout, 2025).
- A nursing home costs a median of $9,581 a month for a semi-private room and $10,798 for a private room (CareScout, 2025).
- Help at home costs a median of $35 an hour, and an adult day program a median of $95 a day (CareScout, 2025).
- Original Medicare does not pay for long-term custodial care. Medicaid can pay for people who qualify.
- Your local price can sit far from the national median. Use the median to plan, then price your own area.
The 2025 numbers
CareScout runs a cost of care survey each year and posts national medians. A median is the middle value: half of prices sit above it and half below. The 2025 medians are:
Source: CareScout, Cost of Care Survey 2025.
Hourly and daily rates grow fast when care is used a lot. Twenty hours a week of help at home at $35 an hour is about $3,033 a month. An adult day program five days a week at $95 a day is about $2,058 a month. That is why a care plan that mixes family help, day programs, and some paid hours at home can cost far less than a move, when it is safe.
- Care type: Assisted living; National median cost: $6,200 per month
- Care type: Nursing home, semi-private room; National median cost: $9,581 per month
- Care type: Nursing home, private room; National median cost: $10,798 per month
- Care type: In-home non-medical care; National median cost: $35 per hour
- Care type: Adult day program; National median cost: $95 per day
What moves the price up or down
The level of care is the biggest driver. A person who needs help with two daily tasks pays less than a person who needs help with five, plus care at night. Memory care costs more than standard assisted living in most homes, since staffing is higher and the unit is secure. A private room costs more than a shared one: the table above shows a gap of more than $1,200 a month in a nursing home. Place matters too. Prices in big metro areas and in some states run well above the national median, and prices in rural areas often run below it. CareScout posts state-level figures in the same survey, so check your state before you treat the national number as your number. Hours matter for home care: each added hour a week adds about $152 a month at the median rate.
Who covers what
Most long-term care is not covered by health insurance. The table shows the broad pattern. State Medicaid rules differ, and each case turns on the person's income, assets, and care needs.
- Care: Help at home with daily tasks (non-medical); Original Medicare: Does not pay; Medicaid: Many state programs pay for people who qualify; Private pay: The most common way families pay; long-term care insurance can also pay
- Care: Adult day program; Original Medicare: Does not pay for day programs as such; Medicaid: Many states pay through waiver programs; Private pay: Common; some long-term care policies pay
- Care: Nursing home, long-term stay; Original Medicare: Does not pay for long stays; Medicaid: The main payer for people who qualify; Private pay: Families pay from income and savings; long-term care insurance can pay
- Care: Nursing home, short rehab stay after a hospital stay; Original Medicare: Pays for a short skilled stay when the rules are met; Medicaid: Pays for people who qualify under state rules; Private pay: Used when Medicare rules are not met
A quick way to use these numbers
Pick the care type that fits the need right now. Write its median cost on one line. Next, write what you could pay each month from income. Then add what you could pay from savings, and for how many months. The gap shows the size of the problem. A small gap may close with family help or a day program. A big gap calls for a talk with a benefits counselor. Do not wait for a crisis. Prices rise most years, so a plan made now beats a plan made in a rush. Keep each quote you get in one folder. When health changes, you can act fast.
How families plan with these numbers
Start with the care type that fits the need today, not the one you fear most. Price it with the median, then call two or three local providers for real quotes, since your area sets the true price. Add the cost of the next step up, so a change in health does not wreck the plan. If the numbers say a long stay would drain savings, that is the time to learn your state's Medicaid rules and to ask a benefits counselor what help exists. Our Paying for Care section goes deeper on each route.
Year costs, not just month costs
A monthly median can hide the size of a full year of care. At the medians above, a year of assisted living runs $74,400. A year in a nursing home runs $114,975 for a semi-private room and $129,575 for a private room. Help at home adds up in a quieter way: care used 44 hours a week at $35 an hour runs $80,080 a year. These year figures come straight from the same CareScout 2025 survey. They are the numbers to hold next to a savings balance when you judge how long private pay can last. A stay of three months and a stay of three years are very different problems, even at the same monthly price.
Skilled help at home costs more per hour
The $35 an hour median above is for non-medical help: baths, meals, and housework. Skilled nursing care in the home costs far more. CareScout's 2025 survey puts a private duty nurse at a median of $90 an hour, or $160 per visit. That gap is why families sort care into two piles. Tasks a trained aide can do sit in the lower-cost pile. Tasks that need a nurse's license sit in the higher-cost pile. When a doctor orders skilled care after a hospital stay, Medicare can pay for short-term home health under its rules. Care that goes on for months, with no skilled need, is long-term care, and the who-covers table above shows who pays for it.
Sample Situation
Lois, age 82, lives alone and now needs help with baths, meals, and housework after a fall. Her son, Mark, prices three paths. A day program three days a week plus eight hours of home help covers her needs and lets her stay home. A quote from a local assisted living home gives them a firm figure to compare, above the day-and-home mix but with help on site at all hours. They choose the home mix for now, set the assisted living quote aside as the next step, and review the choice in three months or after any new fall.
Your next step
When you are ready to look at real options and real prices near home, start with our Paying for Care section, which ties each care type to who pays and what it costs.
Sources
Next step on Care and Living Guide
Paying for care — See who pays for care — Medicare, Medicaid, and private pay.